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Well we're back from our trip to Yosemite, and more importantly for this forum, our first LD train trip. I'll post something longer, perhaps later this week, but I wanted to post a brief one now.
We had a great time and will most certainly take the Amtrak again at some point for another long trip. It was about as perfect a trip one could have. Which was importantant because this trip was for our 25th wedding anniversery.
We had the #2 roomette in the car behind the diner in both directions. The food was good, the service was usually VERY good, except for the crabby drivers on the Thru-way buses. It was a mostly hassle free trip. While on the trip to LA on the Chief, we had a delay in Newton, KS due to flooding but still made the connections in LA. Lots of padding to the time on the end leg of that run helped make up the much of the 2.5 hrs of lost time. On the return run, we were hit by a drunk driver while stopped at Dodge City. My wife and I both slept through it. The guy hit the 431 car which was blocking the road, we were in the 430 so we never heard a thing. Other passengers from the 431 told us about it at breakfast.
We met and talked with a lot of interesting people. At first I was apprehensive about dining with others but I quickly grew to enjoy it.
The worst part was that on Monday morning (yesterday) a man died two rooms down from us. He didn't look good on the entire trip. Fred, our car attendant had been looking after him a bit, especially after the man cut his arm in the shower Sunday morning. There was blood all over the hallways and stairs. the man refused medical treatment as he didn't want to delay his trip. On Monday, they had to break into his room because he wouldn't wake up. We had to make an unscheduled stop in some small eastern Kansas town where the man was declared dead. We had to wait an hour and a half for emergency crews to remove the man from the train. Needless to say, the two incidences put us 2hrs and 40 minutes late into Chicago. We lucked out and the 5:08 Hiawatha was also late due to engine trouble. So we didn't have to wait for the 8:05 train. We got to the Milwaukee Airport station about 7:40 pm.
The Ahwanee hotel in Yosemite was AWESOME. Yosemite was awesome, and of course it always is. Tioga road was open and we were able to see a lot of the park we had never been able to visit before.
As I said I'll write some more detail later. I'm sure you'll want to know more about our first train experiences. If you have any specific questions, I'd love to answer them.
-------------------- Chuck
“Adventure is just bad planning.” - Roald Amundsen Posts: 80 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Feb 2007
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Nice report Chuck and some unusual happenings to say the least. I will be in Roomette #2 on the Chief next week and perhaps will see Fred, sounds like you liked him. I hope I too can report that the food was good upon my return. But spare me from car crashes, floods and fatalities among the passengers. I think you took those things in stride magnificently!
-------------------- Vicki in usually sunny Southern California Posts: 951 | From: Redondo Beach, CA | Registered: Aug 2006
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Good report, Chuck! Looking forward to your full report! It sounds like you had a good trip overall, except for a few glitches. Too bad about the poor old guy who died, but that does happen now and then.
On the Sunset Ltd MANY MANY years ago, we had a lady die in one of the sleepers overnight on an eastbound trip, and we were delayed in Del Rio TX for the coroner and the proper paperwork to be filed.
Posts: 2428 | From: Grayling, MI | Registered: Mar 2002
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